Zero K

The richest, wisest, funniest, and most moving novel in years from Don Delillo, one of the great American novelists of our time-- an ode to language, the heart of our humanity; a meditation on death and an embrace of life. Jeffrey Lockhart's father, Ross, is a George Soros-like billionaire now in his sixties, with a younger wife, Artis, whose health is failing. Ross is the primary investor in a deeply remote and secret compound where death is controlled and bodies are preserved until a future moment when medicine and technology can reawaken them. Jeffrey joins Ross and Artis at the compound to say an uncertain farewell to her as she surrenders her body. Ross Lockhart is not driven by the hope for immortality, for power and wealth beyond the grave. He is driven by love for his wife, for Artis, without whom he feels life is not worth living. It is that which compels him to submit to death long before his time. Jeffrey heartily disapproves. He is committed to living, to the mingled astonishments of our time, here, on earth. Thus begins an emotionally resonant novel that weighs the darkness of the world-- terrorism, floods, fires, famine, death-- against the beauty of everyday life; love, awe, the intimate touch of earth and sun. Brilliantly observed and infused with humor, Don Delillo's Zero K is an acute observation about the fragility and meaning of life, about embracing our family, this world, our language, and our humanity

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DeLillo's latest came highly recommended by some people I trust, and I enjoyed most of his 1997 novel Underworld, so I was eager to dip into it. Despite its relatively short length, I found it wavered between dull and actively aggravating, and was a chore to finish. No humans have ever had conversations like the ones that take place in Zero K. The moral questions the book raises—If technology lets us live to be 500, do we want to? Who gets to live and who doesn't? And what if the planet is a giant dumpster fire when the technology promised by cryogenics allows us to return to life?—could be interesting, but they're not in this book.

I can sum this piece up in one word: boring, pretentious, serpentine, indecipherable, pedestrian tedious and pedantic. I was excited to find a new author whom I thought I could follow especially since my favorite librarian suggested this one to me. I am not sure I'll be able to make eye contact with her ever again. However, there is also the possibility that I am not smart enough to read books of this caliber or they are just not bag, as it were.

Bearddis
May 27, 2016

I can understand why some would not enjoy this book. First of all, to simply say this book is about death and the questions that arise from it is a bit misleading. The bulk of the text is much more like living in the mind of someone else and for me it felt much more personal and real. Not like reading a narrative of someone else's story or journey or thoughts but actually inhabiting their mind, being a silent observer. I absolutely loved every word of this book. If you're looking for a typical story driven narrative this book will not leave you satisfied. While it may not be a unique experience for everyone (more particularly avid readers) it certainly was for me. If you've ever wondered what it's like to be in someone else's mind this book is for you.

The protagonist suffers from a lot of ennui, which didn't make for a compelling character. In assuming that people can be cryogenically preserved and brought back to life in the future, DeLillo does pose interesting questions about whether it would even be desirable. Will one have the same personality? memories? Will the planet have a renewed or ravaged environment? Even so, I just never reached a feeling of engagement with it. Maybe because I compared it to his excellent book, White Noise.